Periodic Reporting for period 1 - JurRad (UNRAVELLING THE JURASSIC RADIATION OF AVEROSTRA (DINOSAURIA, THEROPODA) FROM NEW DATA OF ITS MOST COMPLETE ARGENTINIAN EARLY REPRESENTATIVES AND EXHAUSTIVE PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSES)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-02-13 do 2024-04-12
The specific objectives of the project are:
Specific Objective 1: To establish a good sampling of basal members of different clades within Averostra, gathering all the data available about Averostra taxa. Related to Work Package 1: Gathering of the taxa information and osteological data of Averostra taxa in order to have a good sampling of basal members of Averostra.
Specific Objective 2: To perform an exhaustive and detailed osteological description of two of the most complete and representative taxa from the Jurassic Cañadón Asfalto Formation in order to establish the phylogenetical context of these taxa and test for what the character combination seen in these taxa are key to understand about character distribution and morphological evolution in early averostrans. Related to Work package 2: Describing in-depth the osteology of two averostran taxa from the Cañadon Asfalto Formation.
Specific Objective 3: To produce a phylogenetic tree of Theropoda, focusing on the averostran relationships. Related to Work Package 3: Revision of previous analyses and elaboration of a new matrix of morphological characters in order to perform a heuristic and Bayesian search of phylogenetic trees.
Specific Objective 4: To explore the evolution of osteological traits and the evolutionary history of Averostra, analysing the morphological changes within a phylogenetic context, and, posteriorly, evaluate the likely causes of these changes in the early evolution of Averostra and its connection with the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction event and consequent radiation of theropods. Related to WP4: Evaluation of the effects of Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction event in the radiation of Averostra, focusing specially in the effects of the homoplasy in the phylogenetical results.
-Compilation of relevant information about Averostran theropod dinosaurs and the gathering of all the bibliography and photography of these taxa in the Repository of the LMU
Achievements:
✓Deliverable 1.1 (D1.1): Database in the Repository in the cloud networking SYNC-PALMUC system of LMU (Beneficiary).
✓Milestone 1 (M1): Compilation of all bibliography, photography, and data.
Work Package 2: Detailed osteological description of averostrans from the Cañadon Asfalto Formation
-Elaboration of the description of the cranial skeleton of Eoabelisaurus and Asfaltovenator, photography and Ct-Scan of these skulls, the comparison of these two taxa with other averostra, and the evaluation of the evolutionary pattern of their characters.
-Described the postcranial skeleton of Eoabelisaurus and Asfaltovenator. The obtention of photography and 3D surface scan of them.
Achievements:
✓Deliverable 2.1: Manuscript of the Eoabelisaurus description. Partly achieved.
✓Deliverable 2.2: Manuscript of the Asfaltovenator description. Partly achieved.
✓Milestone 2: Detailed osteological description of Eoabelisaurus. Partly achieved.
✓Milestones 3: Detailed osteological description of Asfaltovenator. Partly achieved.
✓Milestone 4: Comparison with other averostran taxa. Partly achieved.
Work Package 3: Exhaustive phylogenetic analysis: elaboration of a new data matrix and Parsimonious and Bayesian analysis
-Evaluation of previous phylogenetic matrices.
-Starting the creation of a new and updated matrix of characters and taxa, to elaborate the phylogenetic analysis in posterior steps of the project.
Achievements:
✓Deliverable 3.1: new matrix of Averostra available in MorphoBank. Partly achieved (40% of characters reviewed, created, and updated).
✓Deliverable 3.2: Manuscript of phylogenetic results. Not achieved.
✓Milestone 5: Revision of all the data sets of previous matrices. Fully achieved in Task 3.1.
✓Milestones 6: Results of the parsimonious phylogenetic analysis. Partly achieved.
✓Milestone 7: Results of the Bayesian phylogenetic analysis. Not achieved.